President TEPCO faces budget - Xinhua Committee

(BEIJING, April 19 Xinhuanet.com) - President of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Masataka Shimizu, has apologized for the disaster of Central Fukushima nuclear company.

It is the latest in a string of moves by the company, to appease public anger over the incident. Stuttard Matte has more.

Summoned to deal with the meeting of the Committee of the upper House of the Japan Budget.

Masataka Shimizu made his first appearance before legislators since the disaster broke.

And the look of unease was evident, because he was harassed and mocked.

Masataka Shimizu, TEPCO President, said: "I again deeply apologize for causing so many problems for residents near the complex, the people of Fukushima and the public, of the accident at the nuclear plant of Daiichi Fukushima.".

Shimizu apology comes after the resignation of company President Tsunehisa Katsumata. There is growing speculation that the President will follow him soon.

Before leaving the Katsumata announced premier card detailed road of the TEPCO to bring reactors of the nuclear plant under control within six to nine months.

Two-step plan is to first stabilize the installation and then limit the release of radioactive materials.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, former TEPCO Chiarman, said: "with regard to the timetable for achieving these objectives, there is all kinds of risks involved." However, we hope to achieve stage 1 on three months. We hope to achieve step 2 within three to six months. As we receive more specific goals, we will announce them. ?

According to Adviser a Government, the Japanese Government will closely monitor the implementation of the plan of TEPCO and hope that it can be done in advance.

But even with the announcement of the chronology, it is known when evacuated would be able to return home.

Last week, TEPCO announced plans asked the Government to give each household evacuated approximately 12 - thousands of US Dollars in interim compensation. But many evacuated people say that the offer is far from sufficient.

Analysts believe its road map and of the TEPCO pay plan only address concerns in the short term. In the long term, there is concern that the crisis could create a continuous for the Japanese economy.... negative spiral with the possibility of impact on the pace of the recovery of the financial world.

Special report: Quake Massive shakes Japan

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TEPCO said plan three months of cooling to Fukushima

6: 39 Pm EDT by Jason Clenfield, April 14, 2011

(Adds comment from President NRC in ninth paragraph).

Estimates of Tokyo Electric Power Co. April 14 (Bloomberg) — the fight to stabilize its Fukushima crippled reactors will last until June, leaving the plant vulnerable to more replicas and radiation leaks, said that someone informed on the business plan.Tokyo Electric engineers have rejected a proposal to flood damaged its plant reactors, which could reduce temperatures in days rather than months, depending on the person, who asked not be identified because he is not allowed to speak to the media. Instead, the utility is pumping water and evacuation off the coast of steam, a method called "feed and bleed."Since the magnitude 9 earthquake and the tsunami struck the Fukushima Dai-Ichi station on 11 March, there are hundreds of aftershocks, including one this week that disabled the power of the plant and cooling systems for up to an hour. As the crisis drags on, there is the risk of new accidents, said Pierre Zaleski, former member of the French Atomic Energy Commission. "" The problem is these aftershocks, "says Zaleski, Executive Director of the Centre for the geopolitics of energy and materials to the University of Paris Dauphine. "You never know if it has more replicas and containment may fail - perhaps not completely - but these structures have been weakened."Bad PublicityTokyo electric is reluctant to flooding of its reactors because the move would generate bad publicity, said the person. Flooding would increase the amount of contaminated water that gets into the ocean and also raise the possibility of explosions of hydrogen more within the containment, the person said.Workers may not start the process of decommissioning of four reactors reversed the plant until the temperature and pressure were overthrown. Cleaning of the catastrophe, which has forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people living within 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the plant, could take several decades and cost more than 1,000 billion yen (12 billion dollars).The main danger to the plant is reactor No. 1, where the temperatures and pressures are still high and the water level is low, the person said. In the heart of the reactor water levels fell yesterday, according to data published by Tokyo Electric, leaving 1.65 metres of fuel rods exposed to air, where they can heat and melt, releasing radiation pressure vessel.20 centimetersWhile Tokyo Electric plan for ending the crisis said get presentations of the fuel rods covered by water is a stabilization measure, as the person informed on the document, shows data from the utility pumping efforts have failed to raise the level of water more than 20 centimeters within 35 days from the beginning of the disaster.Failure to raise water levels is part of the reason to the United States Gregory nuclear-Chairman Jaczko Regulatory Commission this week called the situation "static", rather stable. "Significant additional problems" could still occur at the plant, he said at a hearing of the Senate Environment and the Committee of the work public April 12(a) combination of make-shift of pipes of fire and pumps used to cool the reactor is not providing enough water, according to the person. Measured temperatures 204.5 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit) in the cause of ship yesterday, or twice the boiling point, the water into steam, creating a sauna-like cooling system that is less effective, the person said.Days, not MonthsFlooding space between the pressure vessel, surrounding confinement can even cause temperatures in days rather than months, as the person.While Tokyo Electric has not announced a line of time to resolve the crisis, the person said that the utility has drafted an internal document, two weeks ago, called the "Tepco short/medium/Long Range stimulus" whose goal is to have stabilized at the end of June.Tokyo reactors Electric President Masataka Shimizuspeaking publicly this week for the second time since the beginning of the disaster, said a schedule to cope with the crisis "will be presented soon."Shimizu spoke to journalists a day after a magnitude-6 temblor, 6 disturbed Fukushima power for 50 minutes, definition return strives to cool reactors at a plant already weakened by explosions and of Earth and the tsunami of last month's earthquake. "We will study ways to resolve the crisis and obtain the support of the United States and the France,"Naoyuki Matsumoto, spokesman for the utility, based in Tokyo, said yesterday." He refused to comment on the specific measures envisaged.The utility decision makers walk the tightrope between risk, said David Lochbaum, a professional engineer nuclear safety in the Union of the scientists involved in Washington, D.C. Although floods could cause weakened containment structures to break, a process more slow has also disadvantages, said. "They are to return to a situation where they have more control,"he said, referring to the progress made in the restoration of the roads and the power plant." "The downside is that a surprise or a slippery could cause things worsen."

-With the help of Yuji Okada at Tokyo. Editor: Bill Austin

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Clenfield in Tokyo at the jclenfield@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Langan to plangan@bloomberg.net

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